Our First Christmas
by NoteEmmy
Summary: Shizuka tries to get her older brother Jonouchi into the Christmas spirit after all these years, but he has something very big on his mind. Can Mai save their very first Christmas?


"I don't know about this, Shizuka..." Jonouchi's voice was terribly unsure, something a little uncharacteristic for the naturally boisterous blond. His hands were clenched hard behind his back and he had even set to pacing around the small apartment. The snow falling gently outside had gone completely ignored for now. So too was his little sister who was crouching in the corner, fluffing out the branches of their newly bought Christmas tree.

The red head giggled, turning to watch the elder again. She stood from her position, going to him with a reassuring smile and her hands to his upper-arms. "Come on now, big brother. Deep breaths."

The man could only grimace at his sister's overly cheery nature. "You don't understand what this feels like." It was the only excuse he felt applicable enough to offer.

Shizuka continued smiling. "Maybe not. But one day!" Her tone went hopeful. "Maybe one day I'll find the perfect guy. And he'll take me out all the time. And give me hugs. And the one day he'll get down on one knee..."

"Alright, alright!" He had to cut her off from her dreamy reprieve. "One day. But not any day soon, you hear?" His arms swooped around her in a rather tight hug.

She didn't feel like alerting him to the fact that he was crushing her, however, her arms wrapping around him. She knew he needed to be reassured instead, and so she basked in the moment. Her brother was an excellent hugger, after all. And somedays she almost lived for those hugs alone. Today she felt like repaying the favor. "Not soon." She murmured after another moment. "Today is your big day, big brother." She couldn't help the giggle of the double word use.

It set Jonouchi to smiling, but only slightly. The rapid flutter of his heart and the tight feeling in his belly couldn't be ignored. "You don't think she has it already figured out?" He still had his doubts.

"Not at all!" Shizuka chirped, pulling back to set her hazel eyes on him. "This is a perfectly _normal_ thing! She'll never see it coming!"

He still wasn't all too convinced. "I hope..." The blond looked around the space of the living room once more. He stepped away from his sister's arms and set one hand to the back of his head. "Are you sure these are all the boxes from mom's?" The term was a little stilted in use. If Shizuka hadn't been so upset every time he called their mother by her real name he wouldn't have bothered.

The girl turned and counted them out. "One, two, three, four... yep! Four. That's all she wanted to give us."

He rolled his eyes. "Figures."

A light push to his shoulder was given. "Don't be that way. She still has Christmas to celebrate on her own, you know. One day you'll have boxes of your own to give to your kids! But you won't want to part with every single one." She grinned.

"Kids..." Both hands came to his face as he let out a very exaggerated noise of annoyance. "G_aaaaaaaaaa_h! I can't do this!"

Almost too predictably there was a soft closing of a door before a sultry voice filled the air. "Do what exactly, Katsuya?" Mai stood in the front of the apartment, one hand propped on her hip.

Shizuka took no time at all to flee from where she'd been standing and fling herself in Mai's direction, only stopping once her arms were squeezing the life out of the older woman. "Mai! It's so good to see you!" Her excitement was genuine.

She contained herself enough not to release a squeak of pain or surprise, one hand coming down on top of the girl's head. "You too, honey." Her response was just as genuine, but not as excited.

It left Jonouchi looking at the two, a dopey smile lighting up on his face. "I missed you two, you know." He said, hands going shyly into his pockets, as he watched still.

Mai could only smirk at him. "Yes, well, once I'm done paying your sister's entry fee, I suppose I could spare a hug in your direction." A wink was given.

Shizkua giggled, finally backing off. "Yes! Go hug him! All he does most of the time is complain that you're gone and how he wished he could follow your tournament tours." She teased.

"Shizuka!" Obviously no one was supposed to know that the manly-man Jonouchi pined after his girlfriend. It was very unbecoming.

Mai found it quite endearing, though she'd never say. She slinked her way over before snaking both arms around the man's shoulders. "Oh~ Is that so, Katsuya?" Still using the family name first. Sometimes it was to get a rise out of him, but sometimes it was just that the habit really had become just that. Especially when she talked to reporters and tried to fight them off, trying to seem distant did wonders.

"Maybe." He grinned, arms wrapping around her waist. "But I can't tell you until you say my real name."

"What's wrong with Katsuya?" She continued on, tilting her head to the side. "It _is_ your name, too, isn't it?"

The blond seemed to shift uncomfortably then, a sign that did not go unnoticed by the perceptive blonde. "Yeah..."

A delicate eyebrow rose. "...does it really bother you that much, _Jonouchi_?" She tried to continue to tease, hoping she hadn't ruined the mood.

"No! He's just sore over something else." Shizuka quickly supplied.

"Having a pouty moment, are we? What about?" She stepped away from her boyfriend to stand next to his sister.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" He growled, getting all worked up. It really was terrible with both women in his life teamed up against him. He could never win a battle like that, no matter how much luck he had on his side.

"These boxes." Shizuka said in a low tone, crossing her arms over her chest. "He really wants to empty them out and get them on the tree!"

The bare tree in the corner finally was looked upon by all three occupants. It wasn't much of a tree, but the apartment wasn't big enough for a large fantastic tree after all. It suited the siblings' needs just fine, so they hadn't thought much about it at the time. Looking at it now, however, Jonouchi almost felt embarrassed that he hadn't picked something bigger. Mai sensed the slight trepidation, and if it was really just about the condition of the tree, she knew she could ease it.

Stepping over towards one of the boxes marked "**Lights**" she unfolded the flaps and held up a rather large tangled mess of different colored lights. Her shoulders slumped in an air of defeat. "This isn't what you called me over for, is it? Untangling your lights for you?" She sighed.

"Maybe. What then, huh?" Now it was Jonouchi's time to tease, finally falling into the familiarity of having the woman close again.

The large ball of knots was thrown quickly at the duelist. "It better not have been! I skipped doing anything at home after coming from the airport just to rush over here!" It explained the hurried state of her clothing, makeup, and hair.

He held the lights up. "Well, it'll have to get done anyway. Let's work on it together. Shizuka, start picking out your favorites to put on first." He was going to leave that to her. He really hadn't celebrated Christmas this much, especially not this way. And Shizkua would be more familiar with the contents of the boxes than he. ...he also wanted to sit with Mai for a while and just breathe her in after such a lapse of time, too. But that didn't need to be voiced.

The three sat down on the couch, Jonouchi in the middle. The couple talked mostly about Mai's travels, and a little about Jonouchi's job and his almost finishing college by now. Shizuka was happy enough to take in their happy atmosphere, only interrupting when she really had an urgent question. The air was warm and loving- a family sort of peace that Jonouchi wasn't entirely familiar with. It seemed to have washed over him and turned him complacent between the two women before he even realized it.

Once the lights were untangled the two started stringing them carefully around the tree, brushing hands at the end of each circle. Mai would occasionally tease about Jonouchi's extreme concentration with wanting to get things just the right way (and the silly way he stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth when he did so). She too had become happy with the setting in the apartment. She really didn't even mind.

She was ... happy. Jonouchi had always made her feel that way. And Shizuka was a darling girl. She was grateful to have been so accepted by the two siblings. It really made her feel like she had a place, even when she was so far away. She knew she could always find it again once she came back to Domino. Waiting for her.

The ornaments were eventually pulled out and the three went to work hanging each one on a branch, filling the small tree until it was glowing brightly and sparkling with completion. When they were done the trio stood back, but something about it wasn't completely done.

Jonouchi's shoulders slumped. "Ah man... did mom not give us a star?" He might not have known a lot but he knew that the star was the integral part of any tree. It was what finished it.

Shizkua frowned. "Oh... I guess not."

Mai, however, seemed unflappable. "When you said something about decorating a tree, I knew I couldn't leave it up to chance that you'd have everything. Jeez..." The feigned sigh flew from her as she raised a hand to her head. When Jonouchi looked over at her with those terribly sad eyes of his, she smirked, sticking her tongue out at him. "That's why I when I saw this in one of the shops coming over here I knew I should get it. Just in case." She reached into her inside vest pocket, retrieving a small, but beautiful star topper.

"Mai... you didn't have to..."

She continued smiling, going over to the tree, leaning up on her tiptoes to get it over the top branch. "But where would we be without it, hmmm?"

"_Heh_. I guess so. You saved our tree." He wasn't so happy that they'd been unprepared to finish the job completely, but he was glad that Mai really had come through. A finished tree was so much better.

Shizkua clasped her hands together. "Look! Now you two have your first Christmas ornament together."

Jonouchi looked up at it once Mai had finished. "Yeah..." His hand drifted to his pant's pocket as he looked at Mai, that dopey smile coming back to his face.

The blonde women stepped back to him, poking him in the nose. "Don't drift off into la-la land, Jonouchi. You promised me dinner, too." Even with the jest, she couldn't help the smile of her own.

"Listen, Mai..." He started slow, reaching for her hand. The move surprised the woman, her violet eyes blinking twice as she watched her boyfriend. "I know sometimes you're unavailable. And sometimes you need your space. And sometimes you need to go off to those tournaments to show people who's boss." His other hand left his pocket, holding tight to a square, black box. Mai had since been stunned into silence.

"But you said you'd always come back, right? And I want you to know there's always gonna be this place for you. ...with me." His face was heating up now, heart resuming that hammering in his chest. "And I don't want this to be just another Christmas- even if it's my first really celebrating it. That's why I want it to really be my first. Do you get it?" His thoughts wandered as he was speaking, losing his true coherency.

She didn't know what to do, for once. "...Jonouchi?" It was all she could do, trembling softly in his grasp now.

"We've been just dating for years now. And I think- I mean. If you want to. I want to- ... I want to stop just dating. But not like that." Again he started to lose himself to something preplanned that just wasn't coming out the right way.

Thankfully at that time Shizuka had crept up to him, poking him hard in the back so he'd stop the stuttering around.

"Right! Right... So listen. That's why..." He finally remembered what he was supposed to be doing and sunk down to one knee.

"Jonouchi-"

The box was propped open; resting inside a modest but beautiful diamond ring with a silver band. "Mai I'm not trying to take away your freedom, I promise. I know that's important to you. But this is important to me, too. Will you please marry me?" Ever the request that it was, leaving him staring up at her.

The woman stood stock still, unsure that she was really even here anymore. Wasn't this just some dream that she had? Some dream that she never told anyone. She was supposed to be free and be able to go wherever she wanted. She didn't really need anyone. Even when she dreamed of Jonouchi not being such a dope, and proposing to her, and them raising a family (with one boy that looked just like his father and two girls that took after their beautiful mother)- ...those were really all just dreams.

Jonouchi was too dense to propose. He didn't want a family.

...did he?

Her eyes had filled with tears before she knew really what she was doing. Her head whipped to the side, a hand raising to cover her eyes and she grinned. "You're such an idiot." She finally said.

Jonouchi wasn't sure what kind of answer that was. "It was a yes or no question, you know." He pouted.

The box was snatched out of his hands. "Idiot." She said again before taking the ring and slipping it on to her own finger, admiring it. "Idiot." She said again.

"Knock it off!" He growled.

"Idiot! Jonouchi's an idiot!" She laughed, tears streaming, even while he was growling at her. To put a cease to his flaring temper her arms found their way around his neck, forehead leaning against his. It immediately soothed his temper.

"Mai, yes or no. Just tell me." He truly and honestly was still looking for an answer, even though she'd put on the ring.

Her eyes closed again. "Moron." She said. "...yes." Her lips found his before he could think to ask any more dumb questions.

Shizuka was meanwhile busy squirming in her spot, crying too, and having an awfully hard time waiting for their kiss to be done. When ten seconds had passed she finally jumped up and down and then proceeded to run circles around the couch. "I can't wait to tell everyone! Oh gosh! This is so exciting! I knew you'd say yes!" Her squeals could be heard down the long hall of the building. Maybe even outside. "This is the best Christmas ever!" She said, running so hard she tripped.

"Shizuka!" Both Jonouchi and Mai cried out in alarm.

She grinned up from her spot, a red mark already forming on her forehead. "**Our** first Christmas! And I get a new sister!"

Jonouchi's chest puffed out. "But she'll never be as good as your big brother!" And then he deflated. "...right, Shizuka?"

The women just started laughing again. It left Jonouchi feeling uneasy, and unsure of what position he really just put himself into. Was he really going to marry Mai? Were she and Shizuka going to put him through a life time of torture now? Were they going to scheme even more than usual? Did any of that even really matter when his little baby sister still hadn't answered the easiest question in the universe?

"Right Shizuka? !"


End file.
